The skies cleared Tuesday morning, allowing Juneau Mountain Rescue volunteers to continue the search for two climbers who have been missing since last week.
Weather has been a huge hindrance to rescuers looking for Ryan Johnson of Juneau and Marc-Andre Leclerc of British Columbia.
The experienced climbers were due back last Wednesday after making an ascent of the north face of the Mendenhall Towers.
Jackie Ebert of Juneau Mountain Rescue said a team took off in an Alaska Army National Guard helicopter shortly after 10 a.m. and will search as long as they can.
Searches were extremely limited over the weekend and the weather window Monday allowed only a brief flight.
“Now, we have the problem where we’re battling weather to get back to the search location and then before we even consider putting in any ground crews, we need to assess avalanche conditions,” Ebert said.
Searchers located some of the climbers’ gear at the base of the towers last Thursday. Since then, Ebert said about 2 to 3 feet of fresh snow has fallen.
“We are working it as an active rescue mission,” she said. “We’re going to continue to work it that way and work as hard as we can to get out there at every available weather opportunity.”
Family and friends of Johnson and Leclerc have set up GoFundMe pages to help support searchers and defray costs for helicopter flights.
Johnson’s fundraiser also says it will be a “care/life/college fund” for his 2-year-old son, Milo, if he does not make it back alive.
